


Mizpah

by gardnerhill



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Challenge Response, Community: watsons_woes, Epistolary, Homesickness, M/M, World War I
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-12
Updated: 2013-05-12
Packaged: 2017-12-11 15:16:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/800157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gardnerhill/pseuds/gardnerhill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A letter home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mizpah

_My dear one –_

_There is no chivalry in this horror, nothing of the old combat ways I knew in another century. This is industrial war, a gleaming factory machine created for the sole purpose of grinding masses of men into blood and mud and paste; the generals clap their hands with delight at how efficiently it works._

_My very bones are soaked in this evil. I have lived too long. I do not think I will ever sleep soundly again, weary though I constantly am._

_Now it is your turn to wait in sorrow and fear. My shame at the grief I have given you is almost greater than my horror, exhaustion, and dumb resolution to live. But live I will, for I must return and beg your forgiveness for this separation._ Let me see your cool grey eyes once more _has become my only prayer every night._

_I will come home to you. The Lord watch between me and thee until that day._

Watson bowed his head, crumpled the sheet in his fist, and threw it into the stove.

**Author's Note:**

> For the [](http://www.dreamwidth.org/profile?user=watsons_woes)[](http://www.dreamwidth.org/profile?user=watsons_woes)**watsons_woes** 2012 July Writing Amnesty Prompt #2: Using the WW Prompt table #1, choose five of the one hundred words. Your fic must encompass all five. (My five, chosen at random: HORROR / SHAME / CHIVALRY / EVIL / WEARY)


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